Landfall

The Stars Like Sand

The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry is a well-reviewed 2014 anthology of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror poetry that I co-edited with P. S. Cottier. You can buy The Stars Like Sand from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

Men Briefly Explained

Men Briefly Explained is my 2011 poetry collection that explains men, briefly. You can buy Men Briefly Explained from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

My Library from LibraryThing

About Me

I'm a writer, editor, anthologist, and now blogger who was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England and moved to New Zealand with my family when I was 2.
I grew up on the West Coast and in Southland, then went to Dunedin to go to Otago University before moving to Wellington in 1993. I'm married with one child.
I'm juggling the writing of poetry, short fiction and novels, working part time, trying to be a good husband and father, and working hard to get New Zealand to take effective action on climate change - not to mention all the other problems the world faces. Life is busy!

31 August 2015

Growing up in Southland and Otago, I was a weirdo because I preferred soccer (football) and cricket to rugby. Rugby League was the code that dare not speak its name, but when I did see occasional footage, it was usually from the mudbath that was Carlaw Park, the then home of rugby league in Aotearoa.

In contrast to rugby union, which has received plenty of attention from New Zealand poets and anthologists, not least Mark Pirie himself, and cricket likewise, I don't know of much New Zealand poetry about rugby league. (If you know of rugby league poets and poems, please mention them in the comments!)

But I do know this one, because it was included in my first collection, Boat People:

The Rapture in Reserve Grade

Fifth tackle, and they’re kickingwhen the last trump sounds.The chosen players risebut fail to catch the ballas it spirals sinfully to ground.

It’s six a side in heaven,seven left behind. No tackler,no first marker. The halfback,that cocky little rooster,grabs the ball and scoots away.

No fullback, either. He'sshowing a clean pair of heelsdiving beneath the crossbarand taking the conversionas the first drops of blood touch the crowd.

25 August 2015

My novella "Landfall" started life as a longish short story called "Pilot", which was told entirely from the perspective of Nasimul Rahman, the Bangladeshi climate refugee who is one of the two main characters in the novella. "Pilot" was Nasimul's nickname. But I could never get the story to work as I hoped until I introduced the second major character, Donna, the somewhat accidental member of the Shore Patrol. Their intersecting narratives now drive the story.

2. Why Bangladesh?
Bangladesh is one of the countries most at risk from sea-level rise. In 2007, 46% of the Bangladeshi population lived within 10 meters of the average sea level.

3. Sea level rise in my story has been speeded up from what is currently expected.

For story reasons, "Landfall" is set in a world in which sea levels rise over the next few decades faster than is predicted by the IPCC, which is predicting (to greatly simplify a complex matter) sea level rise of up to a metre by 2100, depending on the extent of greenhouse gas emission reductions embarked on in the coming years.

4. I thought the treatment of refugees in "Landfall" was far-fetched when I wrote the story. Sadly, it's all too realistic.

In "Landfall", a future New Zealand Government meets boatloads of refugees with torpedoes and machine-gun fire. Even last year, while finishing the novella, I thought that was more far-fetched than my sea level rise scenario. Sadly, this year's scenes from Europe - and from Australia - have convinced me it is an increasingly likely scenario.

5. "Landfall" is shockingly cheap!

You can currently buy it for $2.99 on the Kindle and $3.50 on the Kobo! Don't allow the after-effects of shock to keep you from clicking on one of those links!

6. "Landfall" is one of six novellas which together form Paper Road Press's "Shortcuts - Track One" series.

17 August 2015

As I posted last week, I'm going to be reading at the National Poetry Day event in Lower Hutt on Friday 28 August. In addition to the excellent lineup of poets previously reported, Janis Freegard has now been added to the lineup. I have recently started reading Janis' latest collection The Glass Rooster and am enjoying it very much.

With Janis' addition, here is the full lineup of poets plus other details:

Admission: Free. Open to all ages. Sign up for the open mic on the night.

We live in a land of hills, river and sea. We experience wild changes in our weather and our remoteness affects who we are as a people in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Much of our literature and poetry reflects our unique landscape.

Come and hear writers reading their landscape poetry and reflecting on what this means for them.

One in particular I've been asked to share is Selfie Poems:Selfie Poems: In the Wairarapa, National Poetry Day starts at the midnight hour. From 00:01am, or thereabouts, take a photo of yourself and post it on the When Poetry Comes to Town Facebook Page with a poem of your choosing. Enjoy the poetry all day long, for one day only. Who knows where the words might come from? Wairarapa Word, the community organisation coordinating the 24-hour event “When Poetry Comes to Town”, welcomes poems from everyone in the web.

Wellington, Kapiti Coast, and everywhere!

There are also poetry events in Wellington - featuring Helen Rickerby and many other fine poets - the Kapiti Coast, and all around the country. Check out the full list of events here:

11 August 2015

National Poetry Day is on Friday 28 August this year. There are events all around the country, and I'll be taking part in one in Lower Hutt. There is an excellent lineup of poets plus an open mike - I hope you can make it along, if not to the Lower Hutt event then to one of the many other events. Here are the Lower Hutt event details:

Admission: Free. Open to all ages. Sign up for the open mic on the night.

We live in a land of hills, river and sea. We experience wild changes in our weather and our remoteness affects who we are as a people in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Much of our literature and poetry reflects our unique landscape.

Come and hear writers reading their landscape poetry and reflecting on what this means for them.

Wife gone, son lost to cholera back in the camps before he had lived out his first year, Nasimul shivered and heaved up his food and crawled into a nest of damp clothing night after night, and somehow survived. The ship drove forward. The temperature warmed fractionally. The sky flamed red at dawn and dusk: ash and smoke from Australia, someone said. Perhaps the whole continent was burning.

And then, on another night of storm and cloud, the New Zealand Navy came, destroyers surging over the eastern horizon. There was no point in running, and nowhere to run. The Jamalpur-2 wallowed in the waves and waited for the end, while the people aboard made for the last slender hope, the lifeboats.

You can find out whether Nasimul Rahman makes it ashore - and what happens next - in Landfall.

03 August 2015

When I announced the publication of my new new novella Landfall by Paper Road Press, I also announced a competition: everyone who correctly named the famous New Zealand poem it's titled after went in the draw to win a copy. Out of the entries, almost all correct, I've now picked the winner, and it's Benjamin Dodds. Congratulations, Benjamin!

Simply by sailing in a new directionYou could enlarge the world.

Landfall in Unknown Seas is a poem by Allen Curnow set to music by Douglas Lilburn. Curnow was commissioned by the Department of Internal Affairs to write a poem to mark the tercentenary (13 December 1942) of Abel Tasman’s arrival in New Zealand. The resulting poem is an icon of mid-twentieth-century Pakeha nationalist literature, expressing the growing sense of separation from the "Mother Country" - a movement with which, in music, the composer Douglas Lilburn was also identified.

This is also the poem from which the literary magazine Landfall takes its name.

In Landfall, by Tim Jones, a survivor reaches the far flung shores of New Zealand, where xenophobia is the order of the day. A commentary on racial tension and the impacts of socialisation, this novella hit home for me in the light of current anti-Chinese rhetoric regarding foreign investment in New Zealand property. History, it seems, likes to repeat itself, and this dystopian future cuts close to the bone. With his typical raw and poetic prose, and a highly topical theme, this is a must-read for all New Zealanders.

Landfall is available in .mobi format for the Kindle and will also be available for the Kobo.

How to win a copy of Landfall

By commenting on this blog post, or by responding on my Twitter or Facebook accounts, tell me the answer to this question:

Which famous New Zealand poem does the title of Landfall refer to?

I'll select the winning entry on Monday 3 August from those received and will ask the winner for their email address so their copy can be delivered. All correct entries will be considered.